The Largest Drill in North Korea Ever Has Alarming Target

North Korea conducted what has been called its “largest ever” combined live-fire drills, near the east coast port city of Wonsan, but what the drills were targeting was more concerning than its size.

Kim Jong Un’s military fired rockets and torpedoes at mock enemy warships during the Tuesday drills, including more than 300 large-caliber artillery pieces and submarine torpedo-attacks, according to the U.K. Daily Mail.

All of that indicates that North Korea is getting ready for a military confrontation with the United States Navy – which could mean a full war.

The exercises, part of the North Korean army’s 85th anniversary celebration, were also meant as a show of military strength and what the communist country is capable of doing to any countries that stand in its way, particularly the United States and South Korea.

“Submarines rapidly submerged to make torpedo attacks at the ‘enemy’ warships while fighters and bombers made zero feet flight above the sea to drop bombs on the targets,” North Korea’s propaganda organ, the Korean Central News Agency, wrote in a dispatch, according to the International Business Times.

On top of that, over 300 large-caliber self-propelled guns lined up along the coast opened fire simultaneously, which was seen as an indication that the Hermit Kingdom was gearing up in case an all-out war breaks out on the Korean Peninsula.

Kim later expressed “great satisfaction over the successful demonstration and highly praised the feats of the service personnel who took part in the exercise.”

The drills were also held the same day as the USS Michigan – a nuclear-powered submarine – arrived at the South Korean port of Busan for what has been officially described as a routine visit to rest crew and load supplies.

Unofficially though, the submarine visit has been called “not coincidental.”

The U.S. Seventh Fleet said two American destroyers were also conducting simultaneous maritime exercises with ships from South Korea and Japan, according to CNBC.

Recent U.S. commercial satellite images indicated increased activity around North Korea’s nuclear test site, and Kim has said the country’s preparation for an intercontinental ballistic missile launch was in its “final stage.”

While North Korea has not had a good history with missile launches, any threat of nuclear attack must be taken seriously. That’s why the U.S. and its allies have to be prepared for the worst.

Hopefully, preparations will be enough. Unfortunately, the truth is that missiles can only destroy so much before boots will need to be put on the ground.